Three weeks ago, during Ramadan, just after 9:00 a.m., a construction worker in Tevaria (Tiberias) lost consciousness while working at a construction site. The city is building two additional floors to the already existing mall, and one of the workers at the site fell ill during his shift. The worker began to seize in front of his horrified co-workers. One of the workers called United Hatzalah’s dispatch and command center for assistance.
The dispatch’s computer system located two volunteer EMTs and ambucycle drivers as being the closest first responders to the scene and alerted them both to the medical emergency occurring in their close proximity. The first of the two volunteer EMTs to arrive at the scene was Michael Sroor, who rushed over to the construction site and arrived within less than two minutes from receiving the alert. As he was dismounting from his ambucycle and getting his medical kit out of the box on the back, his father, Adiel Sroor, arrived on his ambucycle. The father and son duo nodded to one another, grabbed their medical equipment, and rushed into the construction site to assist the fallen worker.
Father and son began treating the convulsing worker and moved any objects that could injure the man. As Adiel took the 40-year-old worker's vital signs, Michael began to administer oxygen to prevent the man’s condition from worsening and the development of brain hypoxia. The skilled EMTs continued to monitor the patient's condition until an ambulance arrived some 10 minutes later. Once it arrived, Michael and Adiel transferred the patient to the ambulance for rapid evacuation to nearby Poriya Medical Center.
Michael spoke about what it is like to be a first responder and an ambucyclist working together with his father. “My father has been a volunteer in the organization for more than a decade, since the beginning of the chapter in Tevaria. I saw what he was doing and it looked to me like it was very fulfilling work. So, four years ago, I decided to join the organization as well. I went through the training course and then spent a year as an EMT gaining experience before I became an ambucyclist. Now we both respond to emergencies on ambucycles. I often take my family and visit my parents and when that happens and an emergency occurs we both rush out together. It is a bonding experience to respond together and to drive together. It’s not something that many people get to experience and I cherish these times that we get to go out and save lives together.”
Adiel added - “We know each other well so it becomes easier for us to work together in the field. We talk about calls after the fact and help each learn what we can do better the next time. When we respond to emergencies together it often happens that Michael calls me ‘Dad’. That causes our patients to give us some very interesting looks. They often smile and it brings them a bit of comfort as well.”
“The organization treats all of its volunteers as a family. But for us, the idea of a family working together to save lives has never been truer,” Adiel concluded.